Row over Indian landing at Kolkata

The landing of an Indian aircraft at Kolkata on Thursday kicked off a row between the airport authorities and airline officials over the mode of touchdown and the subsequent developments. Airport officials said the pilot of flight IC 401, coming from New Delhi to Kolkata with 115 passengers on board, requested the air traffic control (ATC) for a “precautionary landing” as he suspected a snag in the aircraft.

The ATC received the message half-an-hour before the scheduled landing at 10.05 am. “Though the request was for precautionary landing, we made all emergency provisions as we did not want to take any risk with the lives of the passengers and crew, as well as the safety of the aircraft. Fire tenders, ambulances and tow bars were immediately deployed,” an airport official said. The plane, the official added, landed safely at 10.09 am. “But it could not move from the runway to the taxiing bay after the passengers got off. We had to use tow bars and tractors to move it to the bay.” An Indian official, however, denied that tow bars or tractors were used, “as the plane rolled into the taxiing bay on its own. No snag was detected and the flight took off for Bangkok at 12.45 pm.”

visit us @ http://www.silkrouteholidays.com